[Sidebar] The Worcester Phoenix
March 15 - 21, 2001

[Features]


Jam-grass deluxe

The Recipe play "hillbilly disco" for "porch people"

By Noah Schaffer

As the Phish-bred generation of jam band fans look for a new act to follow around, it seems that many of the most likely candidates are either basing their sound in futuristic urban

techno (Disco Biscuits), or in rootsy rural bluegrass (String Cheese Incident). You can plant The Recipe firmly in the latter camp. Fiddler Hannah Ross and her banjo/mandolin-picking brother Amos bring the influence of having played in their family's West Virginia bluegrass band. Co-vocalists and songwriters Joe Prichard and Kristen Wolverton have a penchant for lyrics about moon-lit Appalachian nights and Cajun queens. The fans of this self-described "hillbilly disco band" call themselves "porch people," flocking en masse to the band's yearly "Family Cookout" festival.

But there are some things that set the Recipe apart from most of their jam-grass counterparts: they can write a real nice pop, country or folk tune, sing and play it just as well, and they've got a studio recording that can stand up astonishingly well on its own merits. Combining their bounty of melodic, folky songs with a funky, danceable rhythm section, the Recipe stand out with a sound all their own. "We tread lightly between being a pop band and a jam band," says percussionist Tom Whelan from an Ohio tour stop. "What we do are actual songs, they aren't necessarily twenty minute jams. The vocals and the strong structures are the primary point."

Whelan is quick to point out that while most of the songs on the Recipe's most recent album, Geode (on the coincidentally named Phoenix Media Group label) stay in the five minute range, those same tunes can last twenty minutes in the group's concerts. "We definitely want to keep people dancing at our shows, so we can stretch out the tunes from night to night."

The origins of the Recipe hark back to the college town of Morgantown, West Virginia. In the mid-'90s, buddies Whelan and Prichard joined with a violinist to form a trio called Party People in a Can. Wanting to move up from the open mic circuit, they added a bassist and drummer and changed their name to the Recipe. "Party People in a Can really wasn't a good name for a band," laughs Whelan. "The Recipe was the name of one of our songs, plus it has its own West Virginia innuendo, what with moonshine and such."

Eventually New Orleans vocalist Wolverton entered the mix. An unusually versatile singer, she can be graceful one moment and a bluesy shouter the next. Most of the songs feature her singing in tandem with Prichard, offering a funky, modern take on the classic country duets. The addition of violinist Ross really pushed the Recipe into another orbit musically. An endlessly creative player, Ross transcends her bluegrass roots on Geode. "One Day Away From the Cusp" features a string quartet playing a chamber-pop arrangement by Ross. Another, "The Seed", finds her fiddling into psychedelic territory. "We just added Hannah's brother, Amos, as a full time member playing mandolin and banjo," notes Whelan. "He sat in as a guest on two of the tracks on Geode, and we found he added so much we decided to bring him on the road with us."

Like most acts on the jam band circuit, the Recipe tour constantly. This marks the fourth year of non-stop touring by the band, and their efforts have paid off handsomely in areas like Washington, DC area where the band headlines large festivals. Fans in the northeast have been a bit slower to catch on than mid-Atlantic and Southern audiences, but the Recipe have carved out areas of solid support, including Worcester. The band has hit the Tammany Club several times in the past. One time it opened for the Disco Biscuits, a once-frequent visitor to Tammany who have since graduated to the large theaters the Recipe might soon find itself playing.

Geode is the band's third effort, following two self-released albums. "With those first two CDs, we were really just taking our live sound and putting it on disc. This time, it was more produced and arranged," says Whelan. "We heard the songs having different sounds, so we added things that we couldn't do in our live show, like the string quartet, or a Rhodes piano on another song." With the new album, the Recipe have managed to escape a syndrome that seems to infect a large percentage of jam bands. You'll never hear their fans utter the words, "Dude, the album isn't anything compared to their live show."

The Recipe play this Friday, March 16 at the Tammany Club, 43 Pleasant Street, Worcester, with special guest Mori Stylz. Call (508) 791-6550.



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