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release date October 28, 2003 It’s the Continental Club in Austin, Texas, on a warm May night, and tearing up the stage, setting the hometown crowd on fire, is the globe-trotting Hot Club of Cowtown playing hot string jazz for the 21st century. If there’s a reason for the fierce devotion of their fans beyond the beauty and spirit of the Hot Club of Cowtown’s music itself, it can be found in the trio’s fresh approach to durable standards. Like the giants who preceded them, the Hot Club doesn’t so much recreate as reinvent, animating quintessentially American music with a postmodern energy that makes it as current as the latest pop hit, at the same time laying bare the memorable melodies and enduring lyric themes that made these songs classics in the first place. From the opening fireball "Diga Diga Doo" to the virtuosic frenzy of "Orange Blossom Special," CONTINENTAL STOMP reveals three consummately skilled musical alchemists at work. And if there’s any doubt that the Hot Club of Cowtown can bring the same talent to bear in a studio setting, "I Can't Believe You’re In Love With Me, Baby," one of their most-requested numbers, dissolves it in three and a half minutes of cool beauty. "Our fans have wanted us to make a live record for years," says violinist Elana Fremerman of CONTINENTAL STOMP, the group’s fifth CD and first live recording. With inspired renditions of a dozen standards, an elegant studio cut tailor-made for radio, and a slyly ribald hidden track to finish it off, CONTINENTAL STOMP highlights the trio’s razor-sharp instrumental chops and spare, understated vocals. Violinist Fremerman’s dusky voice casts a spell on several tracks ("Deed I Do" and "I Can’t Give You Anything But Love") while guitarist Whit Smith’s emotional and inventive phrasing is highlighted throughout, notably on "Pennies from Heaven." Providing the trio’s rhythmic foundation, bassist Jake Erwin shines with thunderous, slap-bass solos on, among others, "Chinatown" and "After You’ve Gone." The energy that these three generate on stage is explosive, and CONTINENTAL STOMP, produced by Lloyd Maines (producer of Dixie Chicks’ multimillion selling Home), is the first time that their blend of finesse and raw energy has been captured in a live setting. For the band, recording at the Continental Club was just one step away from being home. Even after four studio records, years of relentless touring, and countless appearances at festivals and concerts worldwide, the Hot Club of Cowtown still makes regular appearances at the Continental Club. "That’s really our headquarters," Fremerman says, and the crowd’s roaring enthusiasm throughout the disc proves her point. "Most of what we do is improvised at the moment we play it," Fremerman says. "We’ve never played those songs the same way before, and we never really do them the same way again." In the end, it’s that improvisational risk-taking and jagged intensity that makes the Hot Club of Cowtown stand out from the pack, prompting the band to give the fans something to take home with them -- a souvenir of an unparalleled live experience. |